Chapter One
The night sky is clear with a full
moon spanning a dim white light over the enormous East Texas cattle pastures.
The stars are bright, like glittering diamonds cast upon the mystifying
darkness of the cosmic universe. A majority of the humans are sleeping comfy in
their beds, dreaming of bizarre unrealities that can only be found in fiction
novels filled with fantasy.
Midnight slowly drifted by like a fishing
boat floating on a slow moving river, thus hailing in the beginning of a new
day.
Unbeknown to the humans who inhabit the
third planet from the sun, an object slightly larger than a peanut, hurled brightly
through the earth's atmosphere. Unlike a small meteorite, this object did not
disintegrate in a ball of flame as it passed through the earth's natural protective
shield. The object angled downward as it sped toward the earth's surface. It
landed like a miniature airplane without wheels, boring a long half-inch wide channel
in the reddish brown topsoil. The tiny unidentified object came to a stop next
to a towering mound of loose red soil. The mound belongs to a well-established
colony of red imported fire ants. The ant tunnels are nearly four feet deep. Each
chamber is filled with busy working ants, and they too are unaware of this strange
object that landed near the entrance of their earthly underground home.
The night calmly passed by and the sun
poked its bright yellow head over the eastern horizon. A few hours after the
sun rose, casting its heated rays upon the surface of the earth, the food
gathering fire ants journeyed out of the round hole centered at the top of
their mound. What must be insect curiosity, forced several dozen of the fire
ants to gather around the unfamiliar bullet-shaped object. Many of them repeatedly
nudged the object with their strong mandibles, and they attempted to sting the alien
intruder, but its micro thin surface is much harder than diamonds. Some of the
ants even climbed up on top of the object, as if looking for an entrance into
its belly.
Unexpectedly, the forward bullet
shaped nose of the alien object opened like a hinged hatchway on a submarine. The
food gathering ants gathered around the object's entrance to learn it's full of
tasty nano sized particles made of biological and mechanical substances.
What did this colony of fire ants
find? Maybe it's a lost experiment from an advanced alien race located from
within a galaxy across the universe. I doubt if it’s a gift from a supernatural
being. Perhaps no one will ever know where this object came from.
The sweet bio smell of these millions
of nano sized particles is drawing the ants like honeybees to freshly bloomed flowers.
By way of the ant's pheromone secretions, they notified their comrades of this
new source of sweet food. One after another, the ants gathered the alien
particles and carried them off to their food chambers. They also offered the new
sweet food source to their queen. She's the heart and soul of their colony, the
reason why they exist, and every food gatherer, nursery worker, and soldier are
devoted to their queen, and they will defend her with their lives.
As if this new delicious foodstuff was
a gift from their insect God, within a few hours the ants consumed the alien
nano particles until no more existed. What the insects didn't know was these extraterrestrial
particles within their hard exoskeleton bodies cannot be digested. The
intelligent alien nanos began to map the ant's DNA macromolecules and alter their
genetics, which will affect their future generations.
Three hot summer months past by since
the small unidentified object landed on earth. Albert Morganson woke up early
to repair a section of fencing up on his north pasture.
He's sitting at the kitchen table,
mentally recalling how he enjoyed his weekend spending quality time with his
grandchildren. He played games with Katie and Johnny, told them stories of the
olden days, and he took them out to the theater to the new Walt Disney pirate
movie.
His wife, Ethel, cooked him a hardy
breakfast of pan-fried eggs, sausages, onions, green peppers, and slices of
potato, all mixed together like a hash. He enjoys this breakfast dish with
plenty of ketchup, red Mexican hot sauce, and freshly baked Texas angel biscuits.
"Ethel, what time did David and
Ruth say were going to pick up the kids?"
"They should be here around nine,"
replied Ethel as she topped off Albert's mug of black coffee.
"It's too bad I'll be up on the
north pasture, but I can't risk any cattle wondering off. You know how fast
people drive along the north farm to market road, and I sure don't want to be
responsible of one my cattle winding up in somebody's front seat. It would be
one hell of a bloody mess."
"Yes, I agree, the fence needs
mending," voiced Ethel. "Don't worry, I'm sure David, Ruth, and the
kids will understand. Besides, there not planning to stay a spell. David has an
important meeting in Dallas, involving some new computer gaming software he
created."
Albert rolled his eyes. "My son
and his computer games. It's hard to believe he actually makes a good living
from home developing computer games packed with ugly monsters for people to
shoot and kill."
Ethyl giggled. "David does have a
unique imagination. I must have over a half dozen scrapbooks books filled with
all the strange creatures he drew during his grade school years."
Albert moaned as he stretched his sore
neck and shoulders, feeling as if he never slept at all last night. "The
problem is I'm getting to doggone old to manage this huge cattle ranch, and we
just can't afford to hire a ranch hand. Our old ranch is rundown, being that my
list of chores requires two or three years of work! The tax alone on all my
acreage is slowly killing me! It's like a giant mortgage payment every month."
He paused in thought, and then proceeded onto another subject. "I haven't
been up to the north pasture for over three months. I wouldn't have even known
the damn fence was down if our good neighbor Hank Lawrence hadn't telephoned me
last night."
"Dear, I understand how difficult
it is to manage this ranch," said Ethel. "Maybe it's time to put the
old place on the market. We've always known this day was coming when our two
sons went off to college. They're not cattle ranchers. David likes working with
computers and Adam enjoys his job as being a sheriff."
"Yeah," Albert chuckled.
"That bullshit must've come from your side of the family. I'm a third
generation cattle rancher. Both my pa and grandpa are going to roll over in
their graves on the day we sell their ranch."
Ethel's long white hair flowed from side
to side as she shook her head. "It's not their ranch anymore. I too am
growing tired of keeping up this big ranch house. What we need is a small
retirement house filled with modern conveniences, like an automatic dishwasher
and a garbage disposal. We could find a nice house south of here, somewhere between
Tyler and Athens, near a town or city, so we don't have to drive over thirty
miles to the grocery store."
"I'll think about," Albert
voiced as he stood up and grabbed his oak cane. He wiped a streak of white
flour off Ethel's soft cheek, and then he kissed her goodbye. "The sun is
rising and I want to get this damn job done before the afternoon heat fries me
into a big crispy slice of bacon. Please say goodbye to Katie and Johnny."
Ethel warmly smiled. "Old man,
I'll give them each a goodbye kiss for you, and I'll explain why you're not
here."
"Thanks, old lady!"
"Now you be careful up on the
north pasture. You know how I worry about you working all by yourself. Do you
have your nitro pills with you?"
"Yup, I have my pills. I'm not
fully crippled yet! Although I might be after Dr. Stone replaces my old knee
with a new fangled mechanical knee!"
"The doc guarantees it'll
work."
"So did the salesman who sold me
my truck…and it's been in for repairs four times since I bought it."
Ethel waved her hand. "Four minor
repairs over six and a half years is nothing to grumble about."
"Yeah, but I don't want any minor
repairs done on my new knee," Albert voiced as he limped off toward the
back door. He stepped outside onto the rear wooden deck. The sun is just
starting to poke its flaming head up over the horizon, creating a bright yellowish
red line along the edge of the world. The dry morning air already feels too hot
to be working outside. After loading his tools and fence supplies into the bed
of his of his Dodge dually pickup, he pulled himself up into the cab and fired
up the big diesel engine. Albert decided to drive off road to the north grazing
land. In all wheel drive he circled around his old wooden barn and headed
north.
The grassy terrain is rather level and
Albert made good time crossing the south pasture. He parked in front of the
north gate, unlocked the old rusty paddle lock, swung the twelve foot metal gate
open, and proceeded to drive into the north pasture. By now the sun has risen
beyond the earth's rim and the heat is gradually increasing. He's figuring by
high noon, the sun will be so hot he can barbecue a thick steak on the hood of
his truck. After driving ten minutes, Albert crossed over a knoll, heading down
into a valley, and that's when he noticed a mountain he doesn't recollect. Am I
becoming that old? He mentally asked himself. I've never seen this oddly shaped
mountain, and where the hell are my damn cattle? There should be over three
hundred head roaming around in this north pasture, but I haven't seen one
longhorn! Dumb cattle curiosity usually brings them to the sound of my truck's
engine. He continued driving down the slope toward the mountain, noticing it's
perfectly shaped like an Egyptian pyramid with a flat top. The closer he
approached the mountain, the better his old eyes focused in on it. That's
strange, he thought, there's a large pile of dried out tree limbs and sticks all
around the base of the mountain, and they look as if someone removed all the
bark. I know my land, and this mountain doesn't belong here in my north pasture!
Upon realizing what he's seeing are
not sticks and limbs, Albert stomped on his brake pedal so hard his chest slapped
against his seat belt. With shocked horror in his bulging gray eyes, what he's actually
looking at are cattle bones, skulls, and horns. Maybe hundreds of dead cattle
piled in a four to six foot mound encircling the base of the pyramid-shaped
mountain. The bones are bleached white. It looks as if his cattle were attacked
by thousands of hungry piranha, but that would be impossible. He stared up at
the mountain, figuring it has to be forty to fifty feet tall.
"What the hell am I looking at?"
Albert verbally asked himself.
He unbuckled his seat belt, opened his
door, and slid out the cab. After retrieving his old twelve gage shotgun from
his truck's tool chest, he painfully limped toward the mountain. He forgot his
cane in the cab, so he grabbed the barrel of his shotgun and used it as a
walking stick. The old man chuckled, knowing this isn't the proper way of
toting a shotgun. He figured if his Pa ever saw him using a shotgun as cane,
he'd give him an ass thrashing that'll hurt for a month of Sundays.
After walking a little more than a
hundred feet across the grassy grazing land, Albert fearlessly approached the base
of the unfamiliar mountain. The first thing he noticed was an awful
unrecognizable stench. The smell is nauseating, making him think of death and
chemicals, comparable to the smells one might find in an autopsy lab.
After carefully studying the area,
looking for any signs of life. He realized there's no way he can physically
climb over the skeletal remains of his cattle and scale up the mountain. He
began to feel foolish for venturing so far away from his truck. He stood there
at the base of the mountain, trying to figure out why the hell it exists. It
somewhat reminds him of a fire ant mound, but that would be absurd, meaning the
ants would have to be huge. Maybe the size of a Bullmastiff. He decided to head
back to his truck and inform the authorities about his discovery. He pays out a
lot of money for insurance, and they better pay off on all his dead cattle!
If Albert had walked around the mountain,
he would've discovered a man-size hole near the base, even with the pasture's
surface. The tunnel slopes downward into the ground, connecting to the mountain's
center shaft, which is blocked off at the mountain's flat summit to prevent passengers
in low flying aircraft from noticing any strange activity.
Besides having a mild heart attack a
few years ago, Albert has never experienced anything that truly scared him. He doesn't believe in ghosts,
monsters, or aliens from outer space. But as he limped back toward his truck,
thinking about the weirdness of this unexplained mountain, a strong emotion of
fear coiled upward around his spinal column like an evil, fire-eyed cobra, piercing
its sharp fangs into the base of his brain. He ignored the pain in his worn-out
knee and began to walk faster, almost trotting, but still using his shotgun as
a walking stick. The wooden stock end of his shotgun is becoming scratched up
as he repeatedly slammed it on the ground, but he didn't care. All he could
think about was returning to the safety of his truck's cab, and locking the
doors after he climbs in.
Albert reached out to open the
driver's door when from behind his twelve gage shotgun was forcefully yanked from
his grip. He spun around as fast as he can to see the last image he'll ever see.
An image so terrifying if his weakened heart hadn't been numerously pierced by shotgun
pellets blasted from his own gun, his heart would've instantly ceased functioning
anyway.
Chapter Two
While her grandchildren sat in the front
parlor watching television, Ethel washed and towel dried the breakfast dishes,
and then she meticulously put them away in her old kitchen cabinets and
drawers. The kitchen is her kingdom, and there's a designated place for every
item. After scouring and pre-oiling her favorite iron frying pan, she gathered
the ingredients for a mixed-berry pie, which included cherries, blueberries, raspberries,
gooseberries, and blackberries. She buys all her berries fresh, prepares them
to be frozen, then when needed she quickly thaws them using her handy-dandy
microwave oven. Almost every time she uses her microwave, she wishes her kitchen
had more modern day conveniences, and then she thinks about Doris Day singing: 'Que-Sera-Sera, what will be, will be'. She
really hates cooking, but she's been doing it so long it almost feels natural,
like going to the bathroom when nature calls. Ethel hummed her favorite
old-time songs while she prepared her pie. She knows this berry pie is one of
Albert's favorites, and he's going to be as hungry an unemployed Ethiopian when
he returns after mending the north pasture fence.
"Gram, your berry pie smells
delicious," voiced Katie.
"I just took it out of the oven. It's
still warm, but you're welcome to have a piece along with a tall glass of cold milk."
"Oh, no thank you, Gram."
Katie shook her head. "I'm still chuck full from the huge breakfast you
cooked for us. Besides, I need to watch my beautiful figure. It won't be long
before I'm going to need my perfect figure to attract my handsome prince."
"Where's your brother? Maybe he'd
like a piece of my pie."
"He's watching childish
cartoons!"
"His cartoons are not to your
liking?"
"Gram, I'm eight years older than
him. The Smurf's just don't do it for me anymore."
"Yes you are growing up to become
a full-busted woman, and in a few weeks you'll be sweet sixteen. Oh God, I wish
I was sweet sixteen again, looking forward to my prom night with my throbbing
heart prince, who was unfortunately not your grandfather. I was just as beautiful
as you are. All the handsome boys were drawn to me as if they were bears and I
was the oozing sweet honey."
Katie giggled. "I don't think I've
ever heard of romantic attractions put that way." She brushed her long
blond hair away from her pretty blue eyes. "I actually came in the kitchen
to see if Gramp was in here."
"It's only been a few hours since
Albert left. What makes you think he's returned?"
"Johnny is a strange brother. He
likes to use your upstairs' bathroom because he swears the toilette seat fits
his butt better. While he was up there enjoying the seat, he said from the bathroom
window he saw Gramp's truck parked up next to the barn."
"Really?"
"That's what he said."
"Albert must be in the barn
putting away his tools. I guess the north pasture fence repair wasn't as bad as
Hank Lawrence had described."
"Can I go help Gramps?"
"Sure you can, sweetheart. I'm
sure he'll be grateful for the help. You still have nearly an hour before your
parents arrive. Their planning to take you kids to Dallas to watch the Memorial
Day parade while your father meets with a business client." Ethel offered
Katie a quizzical smile. "Please don't tell Albert about the berry pie.
It's a surprise."
"I won't tell him, Katie voiced
as she pulled open the back door." She happily ran along the rutted dirt
driveway toward the barn. It's a huge structure made of gray weathered wood.
The barn is mostly used for housing tools, farm equipment, and giant rolls of
hay. Just like the round rolls of hay many Texans like to decorate with funny
faces and place them near the entrance of their driveways. Happy faces, pumpkin
faces, animal faces, and scary faces.
Katie yanked open the side barn door
expecting to see Gramps, but to her surprise, standing not far from the door
within the musty smelling barn, is a man and a woman, maybe in their mid
twenties. They're both staring at her as if she's the unwanted intruder.
Katie stepped back a few steps,
noticing the odd couple are wearing dirty clothes with holes and rips. The
couple looks like they've been living in the forest like animals. She courageously
asks, "Who are you people?"
The woman spoke up? "We work with
the colonies' soldiers. We help to protect our queen."
Both the man and woman's faces are
covered with layers of dried red dirt, their hair is matted down as if they
hadn't bathed for weeks, and the thin man is holding her grandfather's oak cane.
"Why are you two in my
grandfather's barn? Katie asked in a demanding tone.
"To protect our queen,"
replied the man with the same deadpan expression that's on the female's face.
"No one must know of her existence. Our entire colony must remain a secret
until our queen has established an adequate force to defeat any living thing
who opposes her."
"Where's my grandfather?"
"He was too old and frail to be mentally
converted for working," answered the female. "His body has already been
processed for feeding the queen's larvae. His protein sections are now stored
within our food chambers." The woman paused, as if she's listening to
commands. "Everyone within these nearby dwellings must accompany us to the
colony to be mentally processed by my queen." Again, she paused for a long
moment. "My queen has informed me if you do not comply, you will be
terminated."
"Please surrender
peacefully," voiced the man.
"No…thanks, asshole," Katie
nervously said. Thinking the both of them must've escaped from the nearest loony
bin, where they share rooms with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.
The strange man and woman each took a
side step away from each other, thus revealing their shorter companion.
Katie couldn't blink her eyes. She
stood there as if she's in shock, staring wide-eyed at the gruesome creature.
She's use to seeing the many hideous monsters her father designs within his first-person
computer games. But this devilish creature has to be beyond her father's strange
imagination. It looks like a large fire ant. Reddish brown in color, six long
legs, maybe four feet tall not counting the length of its two long antennas
protruding upward from the face of its head. Its mandibles have been replaced
with two long multi-jointed arms with human-like hands. Katie horridly imagined
the large fire ant grabbing her with its hands, pulling her close, and driving
its abdominal stinger deep into her body to release its alkaloid based venom.
An ant this large means one quick sting will most likely be fatal. She noticed
the fire ant creature is holding a shotgun, pointing the busy end of the barrel
directly at her.
Two more large ants with human-like arms
and hands casually walked up from the rear of the barn and joined the man and
woman. The ant's eyes are round and jet black, making Katie think of evil shark
eyes. Now there are three ants standing in line with the two humans, as if
their pets, like large vicious dogs, ready to attack on command. Although who
are the trained pets, the two humans or the three large fire ants?
Katie feels like she's frozen in
place. An intense emotion of fear has seized her like being held firm between the
killing jaws of a thirty-two foot crocodile. She forced herself to move, and she
looked down to her right to shockingly see her little brother standing next to
her. Johnny's expression is twisted with terror and his mouth is hanging open
as if someone hung a fifty pound weight on his lower jaw. This image of her
terrified brother instantly snapped her back to reality. Luckily the large barn
door opens outward. Katie stepped forward and slammed the door closed, then she
grabbed her little brother's hand and pulled him toward the farm house, seconds
after the shotgun blasted a big hole through the barn door. She ran as fast as she
can while dragging Johnny like a limp ragdoll. She jumped on the deck, pulled
open the old wooden screen door, pushed Johnny into the kitchen, and then she quickly
closed the inner solid-oak door and bolted it.
"What's wrong," asked Ethel,
while displaying a shocked curious expression.
"They!" little Johnny
screamed at the top of lungs while pointing at the back door. His sky-blue eyes
are filled with sheer terror, his face is skewed, and his body is trembling."
Katie ignored her grandmother and ran
into the front parlor. After realizing her grandfather's fancy oak gun cabinet
is locked, she picked up two large vases and used them to shatter both the beautiful
etched glass windows framed within the double doors. She reached in and grabbed
her grandfather's old forty-five caliber automatic pistol.
The powerful John Browning handgun
looks huge in her small feminine hands, but Katie has fired it many times in
the past. When her grandfather was younger, before he had his heart attack, he
taught her how to shoot every gun in his collection. Katie has always had a deep
fascination and respect for guns. She believes every lawful American citizen
who can speak English, should own a gun for self-defense. She remembers firing
her first handgun at age six, and by the time she was ten years old, she could hit
dead center on any target from fifty yards away with any handgun or rifle. Two
walls in her bedroom are decorated with over one hundred awards she's won for
sharpshooting. Many unhappy men from the public armed services to the military
has lost shooting contests against little Katie Ann Morganson. Her eyesight is
better than twenty-twenty, and she can clearly see a twenty-two caliber bullet
hole from over fifty yards away.
Katie checked the clip for bullets, and
then she inserted it back in the gun and racked a bullet into the chamber. She
grabbed three more full clips and slid them into her denim pockets. She also
grabbed a magnum thirty-eight automatic for a backup. After checking to make
sure it's loaded, she tucked the handgun into the back of her tight jeans,
allowing the long barrel to slide down between her ass cheeks. Luckily, her
grandfather's motto was: What good is a gun if isn't loaded?
After her failed attempt to bring
Johnny back to reality, Ethel ran into the parlor. "Oh my, Katie, what
have you done?" she frantically asked. "Albert is going to be real upset
about his antique gun cabinet. You know it's one of his pride and joys."
Katie grabbed a thirty-eight revolver and
handed it to Ethel. "We're in trouble! We're going to have to protect
ourselves from what appears to be an alien invasion of oversize fire ants with
arms and hands attached to their damn ugly heads!"
Ethel calmly nodded, and then she toggled
out the revolver's cylinder and spun it to make sure it's fully loaded, and
with a snapping twist of her wrist, the cylinder was back in place making the
weapon ready to be fired. "My Albert is dead, isn't he?"
Katie sadly nodded her head. "I'm
sorry. Gramps won't be coming home."
Ethel sat down on the sofa and begun
to cry.
Katie checked her cell phone, but as
usual, no services this far out in the boondocks. She un-cradled the receiver
of the antique landline phone, but it's silently dead. They must've cut the
wires, she thought. Oh well, she inwardly giggled. It doesn't matter! That's
because I'm not sure how to use the antiquated wheel for dialing nine…one…one.
"Gram, I'm sorry, but now is not
the time to morn! I need you to help me make sure all the windows and doors are
locked."
"Okay," Ethel voiced as she
stood up and wiped the tears from her eyes with her Betty Crocker apron.
"Where's Johnny?"
"He was in the kitchen,"
replied Ethel. "I think he's in shock."
Katie ran into the kitchen to find
Johnny sitting at the table with his head resting on his arms, and then she
noticed one of the fire ant creatures sliding up the kitchen window facing the
back wooden deck. Within a split second Katie raised her forty-five and fired.
The speeding bullet hit the ant right between its antennas, and its exoskeleton
bug skull exploded a larger hole outward as the powerful bullet exited. Katie
smiled from ear to ear. "That's for my gramps!" But then she blinked
in surprise as the wounded ant scurried away. "Holy shit!" Katie
snapped out loud. "It's going to take few rounds to put down those ugly
insect bastards!" She closed the window and locked it, and then she turned
toward her little brother. "Johnny, for your protection, I need you to
stand up and stay with me!"
The young boy ignored her.
She walked over to him and shook him.
"Did you hear me?"
Johnny popped up like a Jack in the
box clown and again frantically screamed, "They!"
Katie swung her hand and vigorously
slapped Johnny's right cheek.
The stinging pain made Johnny blink.
He raised his hand and softly covered his reddened cheek. With tears in his eyes
he bitterly huffed, "Sis, you punched me!"
"No! I slapped you back to
reality. It was the only thing I could think of doing."
"You're not supposed to slap me!
I'm going to tell Mom and Dad. They'll take away all your privileges. No more
cell phone, no Internet Face-book, no more playing with your guns, and no
listening to your stupid girly music!"
Katie shrugged. "Obviously my
slap worked too well."
"You'll be grounded until your
twenty-one."
"Right now I'm just worried about
making it to sweet sixteen," she voiced as grabbed Johnny's ear and pulled
him toward the hallway. "If you want to live, stay with me!"
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